Report -Milford Mill, Milford Derbyshire August 2017.

28DL Full Member

Milford was named for its river-crossing, on an ancient route from Derby to the Peak district. Jedediah Strutt, a farmer turned hosier, recognised the potential of the site. The Inventor of the Derby rib machine, Strutt owned a Derby silk mill, and had set up cotton mills in Belper.

In 1781, he bought land in Milford to build a cotton spinning mill. It was one of a series of textile milles constructed on the Derwent between Matlock and Derby during the Industrial Revolution.
These pioneering developments, which included the creation of new communities to house and cater for the workforce they required, are now recognises as being of international importance.

The Milford Mill complex eventually included spinning, bleaching and dying mills, as well as foundries, joiners’ workshops, a gas-works and a corn-mill. The Warehouse, constructed in 1793, was an early attempt by William Strutt, Jedediah’s eldest son, to design a fire-proof multi-storey structure. The Strutt's success transformed Milford from a riverside hamlet into a company village. They built a school, created several farms to supply produce for their workers and helped establish the village’s various religious and social buildings. The remaining buildings are just fragments of a much larger site, mostly demolished through the 1960s and 1970s.

More recently the site had been mixed industrial/commercial units, with part of the site forming an antique center. Currently it sits empty with the forecourt used as a car wash on weekends.

Rocked up here after a nice drive over the tops, was a lovely summers day, Spent a good couple of hours in here and despite being a tad bit bare , I really enjoyed and found a few things to entertain my camera lens.